


Red Reapers

by loveanddeath



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: F/F, Female Grell Sutcliff, Female Pronouns for Grell Sutcliff, OC X CANON, Reapers, Reference to suicide because, but I also want to share it, repressed sapphics in the Victorian era, self indulgent, this is entirely for me, you know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:28:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28825959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveanddeath/pseuds/loveanddeath
Summary: Elisabeta Dante, an unruly Victorian youth, is dead. But the afterworld proves to be as unpredictable as the one before. Dante finds a mysterious new life as a reaper, strange new friends, and maybe even herself?Watch Dante as she adventures through underworld office buildings, struggles with deadly gardening equipment, spoiled Victorian orphans, love triangles, and touch-starved lesbianism.
Relationships: Grell Sutcliff & Original Character(s), Grell Sutcliff & Original Female Character(s), oc x canon - Relationship, self insert - Relationship
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	1. A Prologue, Not Too Long

**Author's Note:**

> I haven’t actually caught up on Black Butler, so if I screw up the plot anywhere that’s just how it is.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just be patient, it’ll be important later.

The witch was being held in the town’s only jail. It hadn’t held a real criminal in ages, usually it was reserved for scaring the devil out of mischievous boys, sentencing them to 6 hours of hard time for stealing wool from the widow or a cake from the baker.  
But that was before today, and today it held a witch.

The town’s pastor was the only one willing to see her. The other residents were terrified of her curse, but the pastor had found the strength in his faith to see the witch, to pass her bread, cold meat, and oats. The only one willing to show kindness to her.  
If she had actually possessed any demonic abilities at the time, she’d have cursed him so badly his body would be indistinguishable from her chamber pot.

He barely spoke to her, burning with rage inside but shoving it down as the book commanded. He would show up twice a day by her cell, slide her tray under the bars, and in the evenings, he’d ask her to repent.  
The first day she spat in his eye. The second, when he came in shielding his eyes, she rattled the bars so fiercely he fell backwards. The third, she had cursed him out, speaking of his room in hell. The fourth, she didn’t even turn from the wall.  
On the fifth day, he delivered her breakfast. Oatmeal with honey, two eggs fresh from the barn with salt and pepper. There was even a stack of pancakes. She knew immediately it was her last meal.

“There is still time, child. If you repent, and vow to come to god, then I can try-“  
“Bullshit,” she hissed. ”We both know you laid these charges on me out of spite. You don’t want me to confess, you want me dead.”  
“I-“  
She turned around. “If I repented right now, would you honestly try and save me? Or would you tell not a soul, and in the evening come with the hangman and try to tell me that you were unable to convince the church. Think carefully, lying is a sin.”  
He said nothing.  
“You want me to repent for your ego. You want me to deeply regret what I did. This is revenge.”  
She approached the bars, and put her face up to them, grinning.  
“Well “father,” I’m not sorry. The only thing I’m guilty of is my pride. Tomorrow when you see me executed, I’ll be there with the biggest grin you’ve seen on a hangman.”  
“Why!?” He screamed, enraged. He swung at the bars, but she fell backwards, laughing. “WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME!?”  
“I didn’t mean to do anything to you, I did it for her. She just happened to be your wife, that’s all.”  
“WHERE IS SHE!?”  
“Far, far away,” she suddenly became serious, “far away and safe from you. You’ll never ever find her again.”  
“GOD DAMN YOU! Go to hell!”  
“I’ll see you there.”  
He picked up the food and threw it at the bars, much to her delight.  
“Tomorrow, when you’re dead, I’ll be laughing. Because there won’t be a hangman, only me. I’ll be the one pulling the lever.”  
He watched as her smile finally faded, and he slammed the door.

She sat, looking at the door for a while. It didn’t take her very long to know what to do, but it took longer to figure out how to do it.  
She glanced back at the bed, gritting her teeth. She knew, as disgusting as he was, she couldn’t even let him have that final victory.  
She pulled back the bedsheets.


	2. This is a Fanfic About Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The afterlife looks a lot different than Dante expected.

She awoke with a start, fingernails gripping into the tight leather of the office chair.

Wait... office chair?

She looked around, stunned at the change in scenery. It was a very messy office, one could politely describe it as organized chaos. Paperwork formed dizzying towers, the likes of which wouldn’t be recreated in architecture until 1885. A bookcase sunk low under the weight of all its logbooks.  
She realized suddenly how severely out of breath she felt. Gingerly, she traced her fingers over her neck. Marks.  
This was either a cruel dream, and any moment now she’d wake up in that cell, or she was dead. And she didn’t know which was worse.  
Was it heaven? No, she may have slacked off in church but even she knew that an office wasn’t quite the Lord’s style. Hell? They did say the devil was a businessman-

“Elisabeta Dante.”  
“I prefer to go by Dante, actually.”  
She had no idea why she was now holding conversation with the man who appeared. She had never seen him enter the office, he was just suddenly in the chair across from her, sipping tea and reading from a file. A golden plaque on the cleanest part of his desk read William T. Spears.  
“My apologies, Dante, I simply need to confirm the details of your file are correct. I was worried your first name was a typo.”  
Dante sulked in her chair, as the man slowly took more tea and dabbed his pen in ink.

“So. You’ve committed suicide to escape punishment in prison?”  
“I wasn’t guilty-“  
“Oh believe me, I know you weren’t guilty. And I know that you hung your self to avoid letting Father John do the honors himself. I know everything about you, Dante.”  
He turned the file around, revealing moving images. A film of her life, playing backwards. She instantly recognized it, it was like one of those magic lanterns that carnivals bring from town to town. Except instead of a vaudeville act, she was watching her life go by.   
Dante never expected watching her life flash across her eyes would be more like filing taxes than visiting a carnival. She wondered just how much of the afterlife humans had gotten completely wrong.

“Where’s the fire and brimstone?”  
Spears laughed, “you aren’t in hell, Dante, but you are being punished.” He put the file down, pushing it to the side of his desk where it knocked off a few booklets. “When one decides to take their own life, no matter the circumstances, they must be punished in one specific way. Can you guess what that is?”  
She looked around the room, taking in his office, the stacks of paperwork, the never ending backlog of files.  
“Let me guess, you have to become a civil servant?”  
He smiled, and Dante jumped back in her chair. He had eyes like the dead.  
“Ms. Dante, you become a reaper. A grim reaper.”


	3. My Life as a Shinigami?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dante gets a new job, and a makeover. Some guy falls off a roof.

“I refuse to do it.”  
“They all do,” said Will, “but in the end they all go along with it. There’s no way out of it.”  
“Why?” She wasn’t asking why they agreed, but rather why he was doing this.  
“It’s our punishment, for our sin. We must witness others die, so we can truly appreciate the gift we threw away. You must work as a reaper until you’re forgiven.”  
“We? So you’ve ki-“  
He looked at her, anger flashing in his catlike eyes. “If you wish to make friends here, you won’t go around asking people that.”  
“I apologize.”

“If you refuse,” he continued without acknowledging her, “you will simply walk the earth as a spirit. Never able to make connections to the living, unable to pass on.”  
“And if I agree?”  
“Then you’ll be put through training to determine which dispatch you’ll belong to. Although... having glossed over your record, I think you’d fit wonderfully in the retrieval division. That means you’d be out reaping souls, not just stuck in an office like me. I get the impression you’d despise that.”

She looked down at the desk. “I don’t know.”  
“...shame. We had a slot next week nobody is able to fill. We’re dreadfully understaffed, you know. One Daniel Harker was supposed to fall from his roof while repairing a leaky hole. Oh well, I suppose we’ll have to extend his life by 25 years or such.”  
Daniel Harker was Father John’s, well, father.  
“I’ll take the job.”  
He smiled, shaking her hand. “Welcome, Dante. It’ll be a pleasure working with you.”

~~~~~

Dante looked at herself in the reflection of the mirror. In just a week, she had changed so much she was unrecognizable. Her eyes now looked like that of a corpse, it reminded her of the illustrations of Onibi she found in books about ghosts and demons. They were supported by a pair of big round glasses, which she had now badly needed. She slid her tongue out, and it ended in a point. She slid it over her teeth, which now had protruding fangs like a vampire. Will had explained that a reaper’s appearance is less like what they looked like in life, and rather reflects their personality.  
She did like the new outfit, a long tailcoat with lots of frills on its cuffs and a corset-like ribbon on its front. It had several belts on its arms and waist, making it look like a cross between formal wear and a straight jacket. She wore black pants that also had leather straps on them, and they ended in combat boots which added to her height (a good thing, since she was tragically short). Her favorite part was the hat, a tall beaver hat which had a silver ribbon on it.

A groan from behind her took her out of her distracted mindset. Daniel had been lying injured from his fall before she got there, her reflection had momentarily distracted her.  
She walked over to him, and leaned over, much to his shock. “Y-you, you’re dead. I saw your body myself!”  
...she decided to have a little fun.  
“Whherre... is... my... booody...” she rasped out suppressing laughter.  
“I, I’m sorry, I, I never gave you a proper burial for it!”  
“Then I’ll take yours!” She howled, pulling out her death scythe.

Well, death scythe was more of an umbrella term. It seemed everybody had a unique one.  
Hers was a shovel, almost as long as her body. But the best part was a button in the handle. One click, and the edge of the shovel became serrated with spikes.

Daniel screamed, but she quickly cut him off with a blow to the chest. Long strips of film reel burst out, a sight which still amazed her. She grabbed at the reel, and quickly glanced over his life. Cheating, fits of rage, stealing money from the church, she could immediately see where John had got it from.  
Will had carefully instructed her that, if a human has achieved wonderful things in their life, so much so that the world would be vastly improved by their survival, then a reaper could choose not to end their life.  
This was not the case.

She quickly cut the strip of film, and watched as he drew his last breath. She then gathered the cinematic record, placing it in a film reel and adding it to her bag. She took out her file and stamped Daniel as complete. There was one left, a man named Peter Richards. That’s when a curious note caught her eye.  
“WARNING: Reapers may encounter demonic interference when collecting.”  
That was unsettling. Will had warned her about demons. Troublesome, loathsome creatures who had the power to meddle with human lives, extending them and ending them while disregarding their natural lifespan. If she did encounter a demon, she would need to battle it off, and she wasn’t sure if she was combat ready.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I based her appearance off of London After Midnight. No but for real, I worked very hard on designing her. I wanted her to dress androgynous for the time period, with a ponytail and a tailcoat but also a corset and even inspiration from modern goth fashion. I can’t believe Dante invented Doc Martins.


	4. Workplace Hazards

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dante encounters her first demon, and learns about the hazards that come with reaping souls.

She arrived at the house, a small and dingy little spot. Comfortable enough for a retired businessman. She had waited outside until his little wife left, likely to pick up groceries and the like. It did hurt Dante to take him away when his wife wouldn’t be at his side, but rules were rules and he needed to die at 10:37 am.

As cruel as her job seemed, she had grown to like it. While there was some people who died young in tragic accidents, there were others like Mr. Richards who were long suffering with disease. She took pleasure in trying to comfort them as they passed, as while she may have appeared terrifying to mortals she held herself with dignity and grace. Often, they willingly allowed her to reap. The ones who caused trouble, however, they were no match for her supernatural speed and skill. They fell like stalks of wheat to her death scythe.

She slipped into the house as quietly as possible, and made her way to his office where he should be in his office chair. She took out her pocket watch. 10:36.  
“Peter Richards. I’m sorry, but it’s time.”  
No response.  
“I know it’s hard, but you must come with me.”  
Silence.  
“If you do not agree, I will be forced to take your soul involuntarily.”  
Nothing.  
She jumped atop the desk, and swung him around in his office chair. He was tied up, with a gag in his mouth, eyes wild and afraid.

“What!?” She recoiled. Was the demon already here?  
He looked from her to the wardrobe in the corner of the room, several times. It was like he was communicating something.  
Dante carefully crept to the wardrobe, slowly as possible. She summoned her death scythe, and ripped open the doors!

A small and frail looking boy stared at her in shock with one eye.  
“Huh, but you’re just a-“  
Something grabbed Dante by the back of her coat, and flung her across the room. She hit the wall and slid down, glancing up at the stranger.

She wasn’t told exactly what a demon would look like, because they can take many forms. However, she didn’t exactly expect them to look so human. The man stood before her, polite as a gentlemen, but she knew from his strength he could not be mortal.  
“I apologize, but you can not reap this soul right now. He’s under investigation, and I can‘t let his testimony die with him.  
“Investigation!? This man was supposed to be dead by now!”  
“Exactly. I’m sorry, but I must ask you to reschedule-“  
She swung her shovel at his legs, and he jumped high in the air. He grabbed the light hanging from the ceiling, and balanced from it as if he weighed nothing.

“Oh dear. If you do not surrender now, I may be forced to hurt you. I haven’t seen you before, I assume you’re new to the job? It would be a terrible shame to be involved in a serious... accident on your first day.”  
Dante gritted her teeth. She despised his condescending tone. “If you’re threatening to harm me, I’ll have no choice but to reap you as well, demon or human.”  
“I’m not threatening you, I’m simply sharing free advice. An amateur reaper could be crippled for a week from, say, a fall from a window?”  
“A fall from a-!?”  
Sebastian swung from the lamp like an acrobat, his boots kicking Dante square in the chest. She flew backwards, past Peter, crashing out of the office window and falling to the wet grass outside. She groaned from the impact. As a reaper, she felt much less pain, but falling out a window still sure fucking stung.

He landed like a dancer next to her, and before she could scramble away, he had pinned her down by the cape with-  
“What the hell, are these forks!?”  
“But of course, after all I am the butler of the House of Phantomhive. I never leave home without my essentials.”  
Her first demon, and it was a nutcase who fights with cutlery.

He jumped, and crawled his way back into the window. Shit, he couldn’t get away. She tore the silverware out of her cape, and-  
Oh this part. She was still struggling with this part. A reaper should be able to float through air, defying gravity like a paper ballerina. But she... she just could never perform it on command.  
She ended up jumping a measly ten feet, halfway up. She dug her scyth into the wall, and began climbing up the wall. When she stumbled through the window, she caught sight of the demon throwing the poor man over his shoulder, with the boy instructing him to take him back to the manor. Oh my god, they were kidnapping him! And the boy... was he ordering around the demon?

“Ah, there it is again. One moment, young master. I’ll take care of this one once and for all.”  
He approached her in seconds, like a stop motion film. It was so fast she hardly had time to recognize his movement, and not enough time to prepare a defense.  
“My apologies, I did not want it to come to this.”  
He socked her in the nose, and out the window she went.


	5. “I’m not mad...”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He’s just disappointed.

“I’m not mad... I’m just disappointed.”

Will glared at her as angrily as he could... but he really couldn’t muster much. It was his fault, he knew that. Dante wasn’t really combat ready. She got high marks in all of the academic aspects, she knew the rules by heart, but she just wasn’t a particularly good fighter.  
It stung with a sense of familiarity.  
But damn it, they were understaffed. And every time he had to repeat it it stung like a thorn in his side. He had to send her out early, and now she was sitting there stuffing papers up her nose while he had to navigate this situation.

“I know it was a hard task, and I’m... satisfied with how you handled it.”

Hard was an understatement. Even he didn’t know that a high level demon was going to interfere. He didn’t write the reports, god knows who did, but if he ever found who wrote that vague and useless warning, he’d... do something violent.  
Then again, it was his fault wasn’t it. He was the one who put that mission on her schedule. He just assumed that that thing would have been some lesser demon.  
God, it could have annihilated her.

“However, it’s become clear you could use more combat training.”

The last thing he wanted was to show emotion. He had to remain firm, because he was the only thing keeping the place running anymore. He cared about his reapers, but he couldn’t show it too much because somebody needed to be serious about their work. Instead, he tried to show he cared through actions;

“I am assigning the Richards case to another reaper, and I am assigning you a partner until I’m confident your abilities have improved. She’s... the best fighter on our team. She’s very good at combat, although...”

Understaffed, always understaffed. If he could assign Dante a proper trainer, he would. But that would require someone take a few weeks off, and they couldn’t afford that.  
Hopefully, in the small part of Will’s heart that still had hopes, Dante’s calm and serious nature would rub off on her, he could reap two souls with one scythe.

“She’s just returned from a suspension after an... unfortunate incident. I believe she has learned her lesson, but I cannot assign her a proper death scythe. She is to watch over you and provide assistance, but you will be in charge of reaping for the both of you. Is that clear?”

Dante gazed at him. It was irritating, being assigned double chores, and from the sounds of it a useless partner. It was like being made to wear a ball and chain while reaping. But... she did utterly fail to capture that demon. She felt if she could have done a little better, she may have saved Mr. Richards.

“I ubderstand, Will.” She spoke through bloody tissues.

“Good. Get yourself to the infirmary room, and you’ll be as good as new by tonight. I expect you to begin reaping again by then, so please take care of yourself.  
As she left, he prayed that this wouldn’t bite him in the ass.


	6. Himbo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dante adopts a himbo best friend.

When Dante entered the infirmary, she was surprised to already see someone in there, bent over and rummaging through cabinets.  
“Sutcliff?”  
The figure stood up, and Dante realized she had seen him around before. He was always darting in and out of the offices, as if he was always forgetting something.  
“Ah, no, my name is Ronald Knox. Please, call me Ronald. It’s nice to meet you, I’ve heard much about you from Will.”

She shook his hand, “Elisabeta Dante. Please, refer to me as Dante.”  
“Ah, yes Ms. Dante, or did you mean just Dante?”  
“Just Dante is fine, thank you. Are you... a nurse?”  
“Me? Oh no, I just heard you were injured, so I thought I would help you prepare the medicine. We don’t really have a nurse, and reaper medicine is different than the human world, so I thought I should teach you how.”  
He was overwhelmingly friendly, like he desperately needed Dante to like him or else. He reminded her of a lot of the little ones she used to look after in her home, and perhaps because of that she took a liking to him immediately.

“Thank you, it’ll be wonderful working with you.”  
“Yes! It’ll be great having another woman around.”  
She raised an eyebrow.  
“N-not like that, crap, I meant, uh, there’s not many woman reapers, and it’s good because now there’s more. Not that it’s good you died! I-“  
“Relax, it’s fine. Although I’ll warn you, before you get your hopes up, I have no interest in men.”  
“Oh? Me too, I mean, I’m also, you know. I like guys.”  
He decided to continue mixing the medicine, and a few minutes passed in silence.

“Actually, one perk of reaping is most of us are, you know. I mean it’s kind of messed up cause, you know, but it’s also nice to be around others like us, you know?”  
“Yes. I do know.” Dante said with a teasing tone.  
He awkwardly laughed, and changed the subject.  
“Your new assigned partner is... Grell Sutcliff?”  
“Yes. Do you know her?”  
He made an expression like a pufferfish trying not to blow up, or a priest about to cross himself.  
“Oh yeah she’s... a bit of a handful. Don’t let her get to you, she’s... like that to everyone. She’s really nice, she’s just kind of. A lot.”  
Dante was confused now. What, was she a bully? Was she going to be belittling to Dante? She made a note to brace herself for harsh criticism.

Ronald mixed the medicine into hot water. “Here, it’s kind of like an herbal tea.”  
She took it, and prepared to sip.  
“Ah, wait, not so close to me!”  
He backed up, and gave her a thumbs up. Confused and concerned, she sipped it, drinking it down. It tasted gross, like mint with oregano and black pep-  
It spurted out her nose, flushing out all the blood and gunk. It was disgusting. She coughed and hacked, but when she was done, she rubbed her nose and felt no pain, although it now had a dent in it.  
“Wow, that’s... amazing!”  
“See? Reaper medicine is no joke. Human medicine still works for us, but nothing compares to this stuff. If you’re ever hurt, come here ASAP and we’ll get you back into shape.”  
“Thank you, Ronald.”  
“You be careful out there.”  
She walked out of the infirmary, and down the hall. She wondered when her new partner would show up.  
“Oh there you are, and aren’t you the cutest little thing!”


	7. Partners in Crime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dante has conflicting feelings about her new work partner.

Dante was grabbed by her shoulders, and spun around to face Grell.  
“My my, I haven’t seen you before you must be new. Well I’m charmed to meet you. My name is Grell Sutcliff, and I do believe you are Dante?”  
“Yes, Elisabeta Dante. But I prefer-“  
“Oh yes, but of course. I must ask you, do you prefer sir or Madame?”  
Dante was flustered, but impressed. She had never been asked this before.  
“E-either is fine actually. I’m a woman, but I don’t really mind either way.”  
“Wonderful, simply wonderful.”

She seemed... so nice. So warm. Dante wondered why Will had a problem with her-  
“Although I must say... you are a decidedly handsome woman.” Grell looked her up and down, and grinned like a shark. “I had no idea I’d be working with someone so... enchanting.”  
Dante immediately turned away. “That’s enough,” she barked. But her face was blushing red.  
Handsome... she’d never been... called handsome before. Something about it ran down her ears like Cabernet and pooled into her heart, which now felt like it was opening up to something new.  
She hated it immensely. She was just becoming used to her new existence as a reaper, she didn’t need... feelings complicating it.  
“My my, how dismissive. What’s wrong? Just because death is our business doesn’t mean we have to act so rigid.”  
“Do you have the list of souls?” Without turning around, she tried to change the subject as well as her composure.  
“Right here, oh it’s rolling onto the floor!” She took the list from her pocket, and it immediately unwound into a long scroll, bouncing off the carpet a few times.  
Their work was cut out for them.  
“Let’s get going immediately, there’s no time to waste.”

They wasted so much time.  
On the first mission, an elderly man, Grell was in charge of directions. After an hour of searching for the right address, Dante confronted her and she sheepishly admitted she had never heard of a Boldhorn street.  
“Holborn, it’s Holborn street.”  
“Well don’t blame me, that side of town is no place for a lady.”  
“Grell, we’re reapers. We have a job to-“  
“Oh look, our next case is down that street!”  
“But wait, we haven’t even reaped the first soul yet. It’s not their time!”  
She sighed, rolling her eyes. “What’s thirty minutes? They’re asleep either way.”  
“Come on, we can still make it in time if we run!”

The second problem occurred in the midday. It was an accident in some ornate mansion, a man with more wine than sense had fallen down the stairs. Only issue was, while he was alone on the second floor all his servants were tending to the garden. Meaning that they couldn’t just waltz in without a bunch of living spotting them.  
“Look over there!” Grell pointed to the third story, “an open window! Well then,” she crouched slightly, and with a gust of wind colder than cemetery dirt she lifted from the earth, floating to the window. It was halfway up when she realized Dante had made no attempt to follow, so with a scoff of disappointment she floated back down, landing in front of her new partner.  
“Darling what’s wrong? Don’t you want to get there in time?”  
Dante adjusted her beaver hat, pulling it over her face to hide her embarrassment. “I... still haven’t quite mastered it. It comes and goes, and I can’t do it on command.”  
Grell looked at her, concerned, before her smile grew into a toothy grin and she narrowed her eyes.  
“So, you’re telling me you’re having trouble getting it up?”

“Wh-what the hell!?” Dante backed up, fists curled. Grell erupted into hysterical laughter.  
“I’m just kidding you, don’t worry it happens to the best of us! Here, I’ll teach you how to do it.”  
Dante composed herself, and Grell gently walker over and placed her hands on her shoulders, pressing down gently. Dante restrained a gasp at the sudden contact, and allowed her to push her down slightly while her face turned red.  
“First, it helps you if you crouch down slightly beforehand. It’s not always necessary, but it helps you to balance once in the air. Next, I want you to look at that window and concentrate on it. Think about yourself floating up to it with easy, and strolling right in.”  
Dante nodded, and concentrated on the window. She felt a small breeze kick up under her, the red leaves on the cobblestone kicking up. Her tailcoat fluttered as it picked up, and next thing she knew she was being lifted by it. She tensed up, and it seemed to grip her harder.  
“Just relax!” Shouted a voice from somewhere far below, and despite all her instincts she did, and the breeze did too. She realized it was under her full control. She walked (on air) to the window, and carefully crawled in.  
With a wave of her coat, Grell quickly followed, and they quietly crept through the mansion, looking for their target.

But it was the third problem that was the truly disastrous one. Grell had gotten a hold of the directions by now, and they were down to the last handful of names on their list. They had started in London and were working their way to the outskirts, specifically by renting a carriage. Dante was driving it, her mindset was the less interactions with mortals the better and that included paying a driver. She had enough experience with horses in her life to manage it.  
Grell read the directions to her, and she led them around a narrow mountain road. After a long tight curve, they came upon a tiny village.  
Dante yanked on the reigns, and the horses reared up whinnying and kicking. Grell stuck her head out the window. “What on Earth was that!?”  
Dante stared ahead vacantly, her mouth unable to form words. Grell climbed atop the carriage, and made her way to Dante and sat down beside her.  
“Darling are you alright?”  
“...no. No I’m not.”  
“What’s the matter?” But by the look on her new trainee’s face, she already knew.  
“That’s... that’s the place where I died.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you guys think of the chapter length? Is it long enough?


	8. More of the Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I told you the prologue was important.

“Oh... I’m terribly sorry, it’s always hard coming home again for the first time-“  
“What’s the name.”  
“Huh? Are you really that dedicated to-“  
“Who are we going to reap!” Dante shouted, desperate.  
Grell pulled out the list, skimming through the crossed out names. “Chance. Chance Hearthrow. She’s a farmer, do you know her?”  
Dante clenched her fists, causing the horses to fidget nervously. “G-GOD DAMN IT!” She screamed, causing the birds nearby to fly away.  
“Oh, I’m sorry...” Grell looked away awkwardly.  
“No, it’s not that, I never knew her. It’s, it’s that it’s not him.”  
“Him? Who is him?”  
“The man who murdered me,” she bitterly spat.

Grell looked at her with a mix of concern, compassion, and skepticism.  
“Darling, we’re reapers. We killed ourselves.”  
“No, it’s... he made me. He was going to murder me, so I took my life by my own hands.”  
Grell carefully placed an arm around her shoulders. “Do you want to talk about it? I won’t judge nor tell a soul.”  
Dante sighed.

“I was orphaned at a young age. My parents weren’t... the greatest people. They were criminals, they lived by the sword and they eventually died by the sword.  
Having no other known relatives, I was taken to the woman’s home.”  
Grell interrupted, “the woman’s home?”  
“In the small village I grew up in, woman had absolutely no power. It was very... old fashioned. If you did not have a husband, father, or owner” -she spat bitterly- “you stayed in the woman’s home.”  
“That sounds rough. I imagine it wasn’t very good conditions?”  
Dante shook her head. “It was owned by Father John, but all he ever did was take money from donations. He said that he expected us to clean up, feed, and look after ourselves, and called it our training. For our future husbands.”

“I often took care of the little ones. The girls my age and older often had a stigma against me, they thought I would be violent because of my parents. I was always kind of a rebellious kid, and they were worried about it rubbing off on the little ones. I guess in the end it did.”  
“But how did John... cause your death?”  
Dante looked away from Grell.  
“I did something unimaginably bad, I did my most rebellious and dangerous thing yet. I threatened the very sanctity of the church.”  
She waited a moment, and then turned back to Grell with a smile.  
“I fell in love. With a woman.”

“Her name was Julie Gibb, and I was in love with her, and the best part is she fell in love back.”  
“But... something happened, didn’t it?” Asked Grell, sympathetically.  
“...John found out. And he decided he would fix Julie. He couldn’t fix me, because I was ‘too far gone,’ but I think it’s because I was overage. I was 19. She was 17. He was 43.”  
“Oh my god,” Grell covered her mouth.”  
“He told her that on her birthday, which was a month away, he’d marry her to save her soul. So... I told all the girls in the home. We may not have always gotten along, but we stuck together. Everybody from the oldest widow to the youngest boys and girls wanted to save Julie.”

“The plan was for all of us to leave, sneaking out one night. We stole the lock box with hundreds in donations. We were going to all sneak through the woods to the next town, and board a train. None of us could take the abuse, and none of us should be left behind. But... when we were sneaking through the woods to get to the next city, we heard dogs. And voices. And we saw pitchforks. The whole village was coming to hunt us down.”  
“...what did you do?”  
“I told everybody to go on, and I’d distract them. I wouldn’t hear any arguments or objections. Julie was heartbroken... but I told her not to wait up for me. To make the others happy, and find some for herself.”  
The two reapers sat in silence for a while, as Grell took in the tragic tale.  
“John convinced the entire town I was a witch, and that I brainwashed the girls into running away. And... you can guess what happened next.  
“And that’s why you wanted to know if he was on the To-Die List? Because you want him dead?”  
Dante nodded. “I want... I want to reap him myself. I can hardly wait. I...” she gulped, and shivered, “I want to make that shitstain suffer.”  
Grell wrapped her arms around her, pulling her close as she began to shake.  
She purred into her ear,  
“Allow me to assist you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grell only knows one way to pick up babes and it always works.


End file.
